Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
Thicke likes fun, intrigue of new Fox singing show
Robin Thicke calls it the easiest job he has ever had and the most fun.
The Grammy Award-nominated musician and composer is talking about the new Fox series “The Masked Singer,” set to debut Wednesday. What makes this music competition show different from “American Idol” or “The Voice” is that the celebrity contestants will be covered from head to toe with an elaborate costume. Their identity won’t be revealed until they have been eliminated.
Thicke joins
Ken Jeong, Jenny McCarthy and Nicole Scherzinger on the show’s panel of judges. Nick Cannon is the host.
“What attracted me to the show right away was the humor aspect. A lot of these shows are based on sentimentalities or somebody coming from nowhere and making their dreams come true,” the 41-year-old Thicke says. “But the costumes in some of the performances are equally funny to watch — a monster jumping around the stage doing these songs. That’s what intrigued me.
“We’re not there to criticize. We’re not there to judge. We’re there to encourage, to support and then to hopefully figure out on our own who it is.”
The possibilities aren’t confined to those who sing for a living. The celebrity competitors have collected 65 Grammy nominations and logged 16 multiplatinum albums, but they have also picked up 16 Emmy nominations and have four Super Bowl titles.
One thing Thicke discovered as the identities were revealed was that a lot of the performers were more comfortable singing behind the masks. Some of that was being a little shy about performing in front of an audience, while others wanted to be judged on their voices and not on the fame they have achieved.
The “Blurred Lines” singer says he can understand the nervousness some of the contestants felt about facing an audience.
“I started out as a studio musician, songwriter and producer. I did that for 10 years before I ever performed live. It was definitely nerveracking,” Thicke says. “It took me about 10 years of performing to get completely comfortable.”